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DOMESTIC MANNEES OF THE PRUSSIANS.
difference between nations and individuals,—the prime pointof distinction between the mean and the noble—the grossand the refined-—the really high and really low—the gentle-man and the blackguard; and there is no valid reason whythe faculty should not be educated in all alike, and life,even with the very poor, be thus rendered a grace and adignity, instead of being as now, with so many, a horrorand an infamy.
In the present state of things, what mere beasts of bürdenare a large proportion of our working men, and what an utterblank is the world and life to them, owing to this facultyremaining dormant and callous in their breasts! If we hearof certain charities being misapplied ; of the poor being cheatedof a large amount of wealth that had been bequeathed for theirspecial benefit; how indignant do we feel at the injustice, andhow eager are we to have the funds devoted to their originalpurposes! But think of the infinite riches of form, light,colour, sound, perfume, thought, action, and affection, thatencompass even the meanest among us! Yet how little, ifany, the better are the great mass of people for the benevo-lent endowment of this vast fund of beauty,— this, the mostlavish gift of all, except Christianity—and the utter waste ofwhich is positively as wicked as the waste of bread. Surely,the harmonies and graces, the dignities and glories, of externaland internal nature, are the sweetest of all food for the troubledsoul, — a very manna dripping from the stars and the air, andtreasured in every flower-cup for the particular comfort ofthe forlorn and the wretched in the great wilderness ofmodern society.
Pleasure of some kind or other is a necessity of our nature,recreation being the best form of rest. And according as thefaculties of enjoyment developed in a people are of a gross orrefined character, so will their evenings and holidays be passed
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